How Content Can Elevate Your Recruitment Strategy - Part One

By Jessica Miller-Merrell 

In case you haven’t noticed lately, content is king. In marketing, in entertainment, and in recruiting, content is what people are looking for. Even if you’ve never considered what marketers are using, all you need to do to see evidence of this is consider the many online channels you use on a day-to-day basis. From Twitter to Facebook to blogs you follow to videos you watch to pictures that make you stop and look, content is everywhere!

If you’re not using content to reach candidates, you’re missing out on a massive opportunity that goes beyond paid advertising. Content can elevate your strategy in a way that dollars just can’t.

What content does for recruiting

Content marketing in recruiting is powerful. It’s a form of digital storytelling that helps people identify with what you’re saying, find themselves somewhere in the story and picture themselves at your company. It’s funny that even in our information age, companies are still holding back on sharing with candidates during the hiring process. Companies who are doing it right are experiencing the benefit of information sharing and storytelling through content marketing. In part two of this series, I’ll talk more about a couple of companies whose lead you should follow when it comes to content, but for now I’ll just say that they are leveraging content to build relationships, tell engaging and memorable stories and educate candidates. In turn, they’re seeing better hires and fewer unqualified applicants for open positions.

Is all content created equal?

Many people hear content and think only of blogs, but as I mentioned above, there are numerous and diverse content creation and promotion opportunities. I do actually believe that a blog on your careers page is the best place to start because it’s simple, provides you with content to push out through social channels and allows you to talk about anything you want, at whatever length you want.

However, it’s not just blogs that can tell stories. Video offers both traditional and new storytelling opportunities. You can use a scripted video, provide a live stream, or anything in between. Beyond blogs and videos, there are numerous other channels. Infographics, microblogs like Twitter, photo-sharing apps like Instagram and the newer channels that are new on the market or have yet to even be released provide (or will soon provide) an almost endless number of ways to produce content.

Making it happen

Content doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require strategy. To develop your strategy, start with some research to discover what types of content drive the highest quality candidates and where candidates are interacting so you can improve your reach. It’s so important to understand the job candidate audience you want to reach before you build any content for recruiting and hiring.

A good strategy will outline the type of content you’ll produce, the frequency and the ways you’ll distribute and promote content. Good content just doesn’t happen. It takes research, time and a great deal of trial and error. You’ll probably make a lot of mistakes, but you’ll also find that it gives you greater reach and more in-depth communication than you can get anywhere else.

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.

4 Keys to Recruiting The Passive Job Seeker to Join Your Talent Community

By Jessica Miller-Merrell  

It’s simply no longer enough to publish and post your job posting to the masses or to tweet out that single job. Candidates have choices and by publishing a job posting for 30 days during which time you are hiring, you are limiting yourself to a community of active not passive candidates. You are also missing out reaching those passive candidates the remaining 435 days of the year when you don’t have an active job posting. 

Passive candidates are more likely those purple squirrels or productivity unicorns who careful dip their toes into the job search waters extremely careful of the job, company and role they select. They don’t publicly promote their interest in exploring their options. They keep their search extremely private.

These passive purple squirrels are extremely rare and its likely hard for you to identify them by simply viewing a job application, resume or LinkedIn profile alone.  This, in my mind is one of the most attractive reasons to building a talent community versus the old way of spray and pray recruiting.

We build a talent community to not just recruit those purple squirrels, but establish a brand and build a long-term relationship. Regardless of your role at an organization whether its senior leadership, hiring manager, HR or recruiter, turnover should be something you all own and be concerned with. Each of us is involved in one aspect or another of the employee life cycle. They are all intertwined in some capacity.

This talent community is one that is important as the global war for talent is becoming more competitive by the day. Engaging passive talent becomes more important as the competition and noise increases. It’s hard for good candidates to search among the cluttered and overwhelming job market today.

·      Relevant & Engaging Conversations. The focus is on them. Solving a solution to a problem with the future goal of having that purple squirrel apply and interview for a job opening at your company. (Great idea: create an online open house.

·      Relevant & Engaging Content. Great content starts with understand the needs of your target audience. What answers do you have at your disposal to the questions they seek. (Great idea: Offer a Silicon Valley Salary Negotiation Guide.)

·      Trust. A community where job seekers feel like they are getting access to the people, information and resources. Candidates regardless of their skill and experience are treated with respect and are valued. We live in the Yelp economy now. (Great idea: TalentCircles platform allows recruiters to leave extensive notes in the system regardless of which recruiter is engaging the candidate.)

·      Respect. Of a candidate’s time contribution and the potential resoures and information they bring. It can be a simple follow up and thank via email. (Great idea: simple workflow document or inforgraphic that provides the job seeker the hiring process and expectations.)

It’s the little things that really capture the attention of any job seeker but especially those passive purple squirrel ones. By focusing on going the extra mile now, you can really set yourself apart from the competition for your best and most qualified passive candidate and future employee. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.   

The Future of Your Business Begins and Ends with Your Human Capital Strategy

By Jessica Miller-Merrell  

Recruitment, development and retention. These are three most important aspects in how business is shaped, developed and executed and it starts with your supply and demand of your most precious business resource, talent and your employee.

Companies often refer to your employee population as human capital. According to Deliotte, the concept of human capital recognizes that not all labor is equal and that the quality of employees can be improved by investing in them. The education, experience and abilities of an employee have an economic value for employers and for the economy as a whole. 

I’ve said before that they (human capital) are your most important and largest business expense. Like any asset in business, investments must be made in order to retain the value and top productivity. If you don’t continually promote and engage with your investment they basically be come devalued (i.e. unengaged) over time becoming more harm then good to your company.

Recruitment, development, and retention are essential for you to grow or at minimum maintain your business. Competition for your human capital is growing at a staggering rate because the labor pool is shrinking while the demand is growing.

Recruitment. The initial touch point that a recruiter has with a potential candidate is in the recruitment phase. With recruitment a candidate is instantly able to gauge how a company conducts themselves and what type of work environment they can expect if they apply and get the job. A recruiter’s job is important because they set the tone for the entire process. 

Development. Once a candidate has become an employee it’s important that the company keeps investing and building up their employee. A company is only as successful as their most important investments, which in this case (and most cases) is the workforce that they employ. Setting up boundaries and mentor programs are easy and cost-effective ways to make sure your employees are constantly being developed and pushed to their full potential. It also helps in the areas of employee engagement and retention.

Retention. One of the greatest challenges a company faces is employee retention. Retention is directly tied to how an employee is developed. If your employees don’t feel like they’re growing within your company it’s likely they’ll move onto another company who takes employee development more seriously. Retention plays into several factors that ultimately come down to your company culture and how much your willing to invest in your company.

Having a strong recruitment strategy is the first step in the mix. Once you’re able to brand yourself accordingly a dominoes effect is set in motion. You hire the best, develop them to be better and invest in their future, which turns into higher retention rates. When companies invest in their employees their business is more successful. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.